CD Projekt Red’s upcoming open-world RPG, Cyberpunk 2077, features some in-depth mechanics in a massive world. In the second episode of the developer’s online web series, Night City Wire, the focus was on the different lifepaths you can take with your interpretation of V, the protagonist of the game. But another big focus of the episode was to showcase the different weapons you can acquire in-game.
In a segment called Tools of Destruction, we got to see some of the newest weapons divided into numerous categories. These categories are power, tech, smart, melee, and cyberware varieties. While we did get to see some familiar favorites once again, such as the Mantis Blades cyberware upgrade, we also got to see more of what’s to come in Cyberpunk 2077. Here’s a quick roundup of some of the coolest weapons and upgrades we got to see in the stream.
Firstly, here’s a quick refresher on the different categories you can find in the game:
Power Weapons: Contemporary firearms that have bullets that ricochet.
Tech Weapons: High-powered guns that can pierce surfaces and multiple targets.
Smart Weapons: Advanced firearms that have homing rounds, which will follow targeted enemies.
Melee Weapons: Close-range weapons that have been modified with specifics perks.
Cyberware: Cybernetic upgrades that grant V special attacks and abilities.
Carnage
A pump-action shotgun that can fire ricochet rounds and can be modified to increase magazine size.
Tsunami Nekomata
This sniper-rifle is a specialized Tech Weapon that can pierce targets and surfaces. Shots are charged up, which fire energy-based rounds. The scope for this sniper rifle can be upgraded multiple times.
TKI-20 Shingen
The TKI-20 Shingen is a special sub-machine gun that has tracer rounds. With the targeting system activated, this Smart Weapon fires bullets that will home in on enemies, even following them around corners. This weapon can be modified to fire non-lethal rounds.
Thermal Katana
This special Katana is a melee weapon with a superheated edge. It can be used for stealth or for close-range combat encounters. Along with normal attacks, it can parry melee strikes, opening up enemies for quick finishers.
Mantis Blades
This Cyberware upgrade is a close-range cybernetic coming from the Arasaka corporation. This upgrade grants V large arm blades that can be used in stealth and combat encounters. While we’ve seen this upgrade many times before, the recent episode of Night City Wire showed off some of the finishers you can pull off with the cybernetic upgrade.
Gorilla Arms
This Cyberware upgrade grants V increased strength and endurance. The upgrade allows for superior unarmed combat, but it also grants V the option to dismantle turrets and use them.
Projectile Launch Systems
Another new Cyberware upgrade we saw was the Projectile Launch System, which gives V an arm cannon. As shown in the trailer, V’s arm transforms into a missile launcher.
In addition to these new weapons, we learned a bit more about the upgrades and modifications you can use on your guns. In addition to replacing stocks, barrels, and other attachments, you can also place software mods onto weapons. These not only will grant some stat buffs for your guns, but will alter some aspects of them as well. The one big change you can make with your weapon is switching between lethal and non-lethal rounds.
Another important note was that some of the guns shown in the Night City Wire were tied to specific quests and characters. While you can buy many weapons or find them in loot caches around Night City and the Badlands, some weapons can only be acquired from specific characters. In some cases, you’ll have to choose whether to keep these individuals or take them out if you want to gain their gear.
For more on Cyberpunk 2077, including the latest episode of GameSpot’s series focusing on the lore of the sci-fi RPG series, be sure check out ourHUBon all things going on with the game.
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Although last year’s Splatocalypse event marked the end of regular Splatfests in Splatoon 2, Nintendo is holding another bonus event in the game this month. The bonus Splatfest kicks off next Friday, August 21, and much like May’s one-off event, it’s a repeat of a previous theme.
This month’s event gives players another chance to settle the age-old question: which came first, the chicken or the egg? You can choose a side from the terminal in Inkopolis Square and earn points for your team by taking part in Turf War matches during the event period. Team Chicken emerged victorious when this Splatfest was originally held back in March 2018, but players have a chance to rewrite history.
This month’s Splatfest runs until 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET on August 23. Everyone who participates in the event will earn Super Sea Snails, which can be used to add a new ability slot to a piece of gear or re-roll one that has already been maxed out. At least two more bonus Splatfests will be held before the end of March 2021, Nintendo has confirmed, although no other details about those events have been announced just yet.
Beyond this month’s Splatfest, Nintendo is also holding another Splatoon 2 North American Open tournament next month. The competition takes place on two days, September 6 and September 13, and every member of the winning team will take home a prize bundle containing download codes for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Arms, and Mario Tennis Aces.
Splatoon 2 recently celebrated its third anniversary. The game launched on Switch back in July 2017 and has become one of the system’s best-selling titles, moving 10.7 million copies as of June 30, 2020. Nintendo released a paid Octo Expansion DLC for Splatoon 2 in June 2018.
The Tony Hawk Burrito, made with brown rice, black beans, chicken, tomatillo-red chili salsa, and guacamole, is available on both the official Chipotle app and website until August 14. The first 2,000 people to order it will get access to the game’s Warehouse demo.
Are there skateboarding tricks buried in the tortilla?
After ordering with a valid Chipotle account, those 2,000 people will get a redemption code in their email associated with the account. Punch the code into your respective system and you’ll get access to the demo.
In a press release confirming the announcement, Tony Hawk briefly talked about his love for Chipotle and his excitement bringing the legendary franchise back for everyone to enjoy.
“Chipotle burritos are a favorite way to refuel after long skate sessions,” Tony Hawk said in a press release. “It’s a blast to see the enthusiasm for Chipotle, skating and video games continue to grow and inspire a new generation. Whether you’re a veteran THPS player or new to the game, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2 has something for everyone.” Apparently, Tony Hawk has been a Chipotle celebrity cardholder for seven years.
After spending more than a dozen hours beating up A.I.M. goons in the beta for Marvel’s Avengers (available last weekend to pre-order customers on PlayStation 4), I’m strangely equally as excited to play the full game as I am worried about its long-term prospects. The early slice available here is, of course, vastly different from the final game in a number of ways, including its progression, mission structure, and the amount of content available, but it’s also robust enough to finally provide a good sense of what kind of game Avengers actually is. The answer, at least so far, appears to be a fun and charming single-player superhero campaign that’s grafted onto a far less entertaining multiplayer looter with a potentially troubling combination of problems.
The beta, which will be open on and off leading up to Avengers’ release on September 4 and doesn’t allow you to carry your progress over to the full game, includes three single-player campaign missions, four of the six heroes that will be included at launch, and a handful of mostly repetitive multiplayer missions to give us a taste of its online gameplay. That’s obviously nowhere near enough to make a final determination or full review, but it’s worth delving into even at this early stage.
The first story mission available is the same Golden Gate Bridge scene we’d seen in past demos – essentially a bombastic and entertaining way to dress up a tutorial. The second, however, is what really gave me a sense of optimism for the campaign. Starting simple, with Bruce Banner and Kamala Khan trudging through the woods together, this mission trades in cinematic spectacle for funny and genuine character moments that felt far more like Crystal Dynamics’ recent Tomb Raider games than the Destiny-style loot systems that have defined Avengers in the lead-up to this beta.
The dynamic between Kamala and Bruce is excellently performed by Sandra Saad and Troy Baker, respectively, and makes the duo instantly endearing. Her excited energy is a perfect counterpoint to his calm (and amusingly awkward) demeanor. The writing here is great, and that generally holds true throughout the entire beta – the only major exception being Iron Man’s extraordinarily obnoxious referential mid-mission quips. But apart from Tony Stark dishing out bad pop song jokes, I’m so pleased to see that (at least so far) Avengers has made room for small-scale human moments amongst all the action sequences. Thinking back now, I remember Bruce adorably fumbling his way through trying to comfort an upset Kamala more fondly than any of the times I used his alter ego to blow up giant robots.
That’s not to speak ill of the action. The fundamentals of Avengers’ beat-em-up combat are a lot of fun in a campaign setting like this, with each mission giving you control of a specific character depending on the story’s needs at any given time. Your initial options don’t deliver the deepest combat system in the world, but the arenas I fought in as either Hulk or Ms. Marvel in that second mission felt tailored more to those specific characters in a way that was disappointingly missing from its replayable multiplayer setting later on.
Each character has their own unique attacks, special abilities, and signature style, and for the most part all the heroes in the beta – Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Iron Man, and Black Widow – are a lot of fun. I loved throwing giant rocks at enemies as Hulk just as much as I enjoyed flying through the air before landing to do a spinning laser attack as Iron Man. And while those two ended up being my staples after I completed the beta’s campaign missions, I was genuinely happy to switch to any character since they each bring their own flavor to a fight.
Avengers makes it fairly intuitive when you first step into the shoes of a new one too, but the way it manages that is a double-edged sword. Despite being wildly different on the surface, each character is functionally similar when it comes to controls. They have a light attack on Square, a heavy on Triangle, a defensive move on R2, and nearly the exact same basic button combos to use as you’re wailing on enemies (at least in terms of what was available in the beta). The good news is that means it takes essentially no time to pick a new hero up and start effectively cracking skulls with them. The bad news is that, after a while, all their signature differences started to mean a lot less in my eyes.
Each hero is essentially their own flavor of ice cream. Everyone will probably have a favorite, but at the end of the day you’re still gonna be eating ice cream regardless. Hulk’s fists are ultimately going to be just about as effective at hitting stuff as Black Widow’s batons (which seems odd when you think about it), and Iron Man’s assortment of ranged weapons don’t feel as special when Ms. Marvel – who uses only her limbs to attack – can still “throw” her punches as a ranged weapon. There are undoubtedly significant differences in their capabilities (Ms. Marvel can’t fly, for instance), but so far when it comes to beating up bad guys there seems to be very little one can do that another can’t, homogenizing the feel of the beta’s four-hero roster as we’ve seen it.
That samey feeling wasn’t really a problem during the campaign, where fights are more intimate and the flavor of being a specific hero is often the whole point. But in multiplayer, the increased scale of combat only made this shortcoming more apparent. The chaos generated by an army of enemies and four different heroes meant that, no matter who I was playing as, most encounters felt like little more than slamming Square and Triangle a bunch depending on what type of generic robot or A.I.M. soldier was in front of me (and upping the difficulty only seemed to make them stronger, not more nuanced to fight). Sure, I’d throw in ranged attacks and special moves to deal with distant enemies or break shields, and I definitely had fun blowing most of these baddies up regardless, but when the multiplayer asks you to replay encounters over and over again, the beta’s combat started to feel shallow quickly .
The main thing that bucks this trend are each character’s three heroic abilities, which are epic, cooldown-based moves unique to them (you’ll be able to swap between a handful of options in the final game). These are things like Hulk creating a shockwave clap, Kamala growing huge, or Iron Man calling down the Hulk Buster suit for any party member to equip. Heroics helped characters feel more mechanically diverse from one another because they offered effects that required more thought to use effectively than your fists. The heroic ability options are limited in the beta, but I look forward to seeing how much this system will let me alter the feel and role of my heroes.
The condensed nature of the beta means I surely haven’t seen anywhere near the full amount of what Avengers will have to offer next month, but environments and mission types also started to look disappointingly similar far faster than I was expecting. If you’ve seen one A.I.M facility in the beta, you’ve basically seen them all. Likewise, the comically brief Drop Zone missions and slightly longer War Zones provide different time investments but are almost identical in function. The former will drop you straight into an enemy base with a single objective to complete, usually taking at most five minutes to finish, while the latter has you explore a small open-world area for loot chests hidden behind light button puzzles before taking on the same sorts of challenges as the Drop Zones. But whether you start in a forest, a city, or an A.I.M. hideout, the beta missions nearly always have you punching your way through another bland underground facility before long.
War Zones become a true chore when played with randoms through matchmaking, too, because there’s seemingly zero way to communicate with your team. That makes actual teamwork about as rare as an Infinity Stone. Going in with a squad of friends, of course, makes things more fun (as it also does with moving apartments or getting your teeth drilled), but the mission objectives and level layouts remain largely uninteresting regardless. They generally fall into two categories: stand on a spot until you win or punch specific stuff until you win. The latter will often ask you to break some objects on the map, hilariously letting you ignore every enemy around you since they’ll all just instantly teleport away once you complete that task. Just like the Avengers would do it, right?
The combat, basic as it is right now, did keep me entertained thanks to the wonderful superhero flair present in all parts of Avengers, but that usually only lasted for the first or second playthrough of each mission. This could certainly be a problem contained to the beta, since the full game will likely have considerably more diversity. There are promising hints of it here, and every time I played something totally new was like a shot of adrenaline that revitalized an experience that was otherwise quickly going stale. New enemies or encounters – like an extremely cool giant spider-tank in the beta’s one Villain Sector, or an interesting door puzzle in its secret Vault level that required genuine teamwork and communication – always gave me hope for the variety the full game might offer. But if Avengers wants me to replay these missions ad nauseum like many other online looters expect, it has yet to give me a good reason to do so.
Some Assembly Required
Based on the beta, the most worrisome fundamental problem sitting at the heart of Avengers is in its loot, which could be put in a college textbook to teach budding designers what an unfulfilling equipment system looks like. It’s a convoluted mess full of invisible stat improvements, marginal gains for your characters, and – and this is not a joke – what appears to be EIGHT different resources to collect and upgrade your gear with, most of which seem to be functionally nearly identical and unintuitively assigned to different types of equipment.
Starting with the basics, every hero has four main gear slots: one primarily improves your melee, one your ranged, one your defense, and one your heroic abilities. You also have three slots for Artifacts, which so far appear to mainly offer more general buffs like elemental resistances or rare unique skills like increasing your chance to find gear. Each item has a generic Power level that influences both that hero’s stats and their overall Power level (which, in turn, affects the scaling of missions), as well as possible extra stat improvements and special tweaks, like adding elemental effects to certain attacks – a notably cool one is Pym Particles, which will shrink enemies exposed to enough of them.
Dealing with gear is all very fiddly, with lots of tiny text offering tiny percentage boosts to different parts of your characters – but thankfully, if you want to ignore all that, hovering over an item will show you how it will affect your general melee, ranged, defense, and heroic scores, allowing those not interested in min-maxing to make snap decisions. That’s especially helpful because you can frequently find, for example, melee stat improvements on a ranged item, which will mean a higher Power ranged item might actually lower your overall strength. It’s unintuitive and irritating and made me reluctant to sort through loot instead of being excited about picking up something new.
The other major problem here is that the stat increases you’re getting are so ridiculously marginal (we’re talking often single-digit percentage points at a time) that you’ll practically never notice how your character improves after equipping a new item. Outside of elemental particle effects, nothing about what your gear changes is cosmetic (that’s left to progression unlocks and microtransactions for new skins) limiting these improvements to completely invisible numbers on a spreadsheet. Even the look of the gear icons in the menu is only loosely related to their function – while Iron Man might find new pieces for his suit, Kamala will be collecting wristbands and shirt logos (which, again, don’t change her visually when you equip them), and Hulk is improving his defense by swapping out… his ribcage, I guess?
I didn’t care about any of it, just the numbers, and even those aren’t satisfying to increase. I tried one harder beta mission when I had lower than the recommended Power level and got my butt kicked, so I went off to grind some bland Drop Zones to get that number up, and then returned to find the mission was super easy with absolutely no sense that I had accomplished anything to earn that growth. I’ve had plenty of fun grinding for power in games, but when the grind is repetitive and the rewards are unexciting, it’s a combo that can kill the momentum of any online looter – and has plenty of times in recent years. Late-game loot could, of course, be more varied or interesting than the limited amount I’ve seen, and I am interested to see how effects like Pym Particles are utilized further. But what’s here is so full of relevant flaws already that it makes me wonder if Avengers won’t eventually need to go through a loot rework similar Diablo 3, Destiny, and many others before it (a process Anthem is going through at this very moment).
Thankfully, the other side of character progression is more compelling: simply using a hero will level them up and earn you skill points. Those can be spent on unique upgrades in one of three skill tree pages per hero, of which only one is available in the beta. I am excited to see the entirety of this system, because there seemed to be real, interesting unlocks to work toward, including new combos and entire moves. Iron Man’s was the most robust so far, allowing you to unlock rockets and lasers alongside your basic repulsors as a way to alter your heavy and ranged attacks on the fly. I liked making those choices far more than looking for loot.
There’s also clearly a lot of Marvel love poured into this game. The moves are full of references to comics and the MCU alike, and unlockable audio logs and comic book covers make this feel like both a living world of its own and an homage for longtime fans at the same time. The optional cosmetic outfits are also far superior to something like the limited options present in 2019’s Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, with many unlocked for free (though seemingly pretty slowly) through each hero’s battle pass-style challenge card.
Another concern is that I’ve experienced a pretty alarming number of bugs in my time playing, though I will give it the resounding benefit of the doubt for this to the fact that this is a beta. So while you should take this with a grain of salt, also know that I’ve had allies completely freeze in place, my health bar disappear entirely, hard crashes to the PS4 dashboard, mission progress halted by glitched enemies, and a host of visual issues – including the fact that the frame rate will always slow significantly in large fights, even in performance mode on a PS4 Pro. A bug from the first beta weekend (one Crystal Dynamics told me has already been resolved) even permanently removed all but three missions from my map, forcing me to wipe my save data entirely to keep playing. These issues could certainly be solved by launch, but their prevalence here means I’ll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled to make sure they have.
That’s not the only big question the Avengers beta has left me with, either. I can’t wait to find out how long the full campaign is – as well as how often it will rely on using the more generic multiplayer-style missions as part of the story, which, to my dismay, it did for the beta’s third campaign mission. I want to know if mission and location variety change enough to keep me more engaged, or if its combat and heroes get a bit deeper once all the skill pages unlock. But, most importantly, I want to know if it could possibly give me a reason to care about what ribcage I equip on my Hulk.
This beta’s campaign content had flashes of brilliance, and I am genuinely excited and optimistic to play the rest of that story. But the other side of the Avengers coin, that of a Destiny-style looter seemingly meant to be replayed long after the campaign credits roll, has me wholly unimpressed and extremely worried. It could easily be that those concerns are unfounded once I play the full game, but right now I’m left as anxious as I am impatient to find out.
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Tom Marks is IGN’s Deputy Reviews Editor and resident pie maker, and he wishes Iron Man would stop singing. You can follow him on Twitter.
Musician-oriented nonprofit Artist Rights Alliance has sent an open letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos calling him out on perceived willful ignorance over how music licensing on Twitch works, as reported by Variety. During an August House Judiciary Committee hearing, Bezos testified and claimed he didn’t know if Twitch, which Amazon has owned for almost six years, allows users to stream unlicensed music during their broadcasts.
The ARA has taken umbrage to this statement, as many musicians have been impacted by the pandemic and are in need of whatever revenue streams they can get. “For working songwriters and performers, fair royalties on a growing platform like Twitch can literally be a matter of life and death — the difference between having a place to live and homelessness and having access to health care or being uninsured,” the letter states.
According to a report by Streamlabs and Stream Hatchet, Twitch has seen an 83% increase in hours of content streamed year over year for the second quarter of 2020, which has in turn lead to the growth of the “music and performing arts” category–it boasted 17 million hours in April. While this is only about 1% of Twitch’s total viewership, it was enough for the big players in the music industry to finally take notice of streamers using their music and led to a series of DMCA takedowns being filed against creators for using copyrighted music, regardless of category.
Though they acknowledge that Amazon does have many legit streaming services, the ARA makes it clear that Twitch isn’t one. “We respect Amazon and its many products and services that help fans and audiences find and enjoy creative works. We appreciate that Amazon offers a number of properly licensed streaming services. Amazon’s Twitch subsidiary, however, is not one of those services,” the letter reads.
“We have closely followed the rising controversy surrounding Twitch’s hosting and delivery of unlicensed music and the company’s apparent unwillingness to do anything beyond the most minimal and inadequate effort to process takedown requests and shift responsibility for systematic unpaid use of music on the platform to its users,” the statement adds. This is reference to the fact that Twitch is allowing streamers to use their Audible Magic tool to try and screen their VODs for licensed music and prevent them from being archived on their own.
The letter ultimately demands to know if Twitch users are allowed to use unlicensed music, and if so, what the plan is to rectify that. “We further ask you to explain what you are doing or plan to do to proactively stop that [streaming unlicensed music] from happening and ensure that artists and songwriters are paid fair market value for the work when it is performed on Twitch.”
Sony has announced that four PlayStation 4 controller colors are making a comeback. The Berry Blue, Red Camouflage, Rose Gold, and Steel Black DualShock 4 controllers will be purchasable again this month.
These four colors will be available to buy in retail stores and on digital storefronts like Amazon and GameStop. Sony also shared a short video showcasing the returning colors, along with the many other DualShock 4 colors the company has released.
While Sony didn’t specify when they would be available to purchase, it seems the returning DualShock 4 controller colors are available on Amazon. Some, like the Steel Black controller, are available to ship now while others, such as the Red Camouflage color, will be restocked in mid-September. They’ll each retail for about $65 USD.
In other PlayStation deals news, the PlayStation Store is holding a massive sale where some 500 games are discounted. The PlayStation Store’s Summer Sale runs until August 20, and the laundry list of games includes Control for $21, Dragon Ball FighterZ: Ultimate Edition for $17.59, Maneater for $30, and many more.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
Funko Pops based on popular PlayStation characters aren’t as common as one might think, especially when you consider the fact that new Funko Pops practically release daily. PlayStation and Funko are adding to the growing collection with four new designs based on The Last of Us Part II, Ratchet & Clank, Twisted Metal, and Death Stranding. The Last of Us’ new Joel Funko Pop joins the recently announced Ellie Pop, which releases later this month. All four new Pops are GameStop exclusives and release this fall.
Norman Reedus has been turned into a Funko Pop before thanks to The Walking Dead, but his new Pop introduces the world to the smallest Pop character of all: BB. However, it’s not the most realistic depiction of Sam Porter Bridges from Death Stranding, since he’s only carrying one parcel. The Sam Porter Bridges Pop releases September 3 for $12.
Modeled after his appearance in The Last of Us Part II, this very serious Joel Pop has gray hair and carries a shotgun. It releases September 7 for $12.
Joining the Pop! Rides lineup, this Twisted Metal Funko Pop is much larger than the average figurine. It features Sweet Tooth with his iconic ice cream truck and releases October 5 for $30.
Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company
Steam’s summer sale has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean the store is done offering notable discounts this season; in fact, the latest Steam sale offers steep discounts on some of the best indie games of recent years. The Tiny Teams Festival focuses on games made by small development teams, and in some cases, just one person. Don’t take that to mean these games aren’t worth your time, however–the sale includes some real bangers that you shouldn’t miss out on. The following deals are available until August 15.
The sale includes the acclaimed 2017 Metroidvania Hollow Knight, which is 50% off at $7.49 right now. If you’ve somehow missed out on Stardew Valley, which is available on every platform at this point, the Steam version is a few bucks off, selling for $12 right now. Speaking of farm sims, here’s one you may not have heard of: The Stillness of the Wind is super cheap right now at $4.54. Only a few hours long, this dreamy, meditative game follows an old woman named Talma, who lives alone and quietly tends her farm while receiving increasingly disturbing letters from her family in the city.
Best deals in Steam’s Tiny Teams sale
Other standouts include Devolver’s Ape Out, which lets you experience what it would be like to be an angry gorilla who escapes its cage and smashes up a bunch of humans–it’s down to $7.49 right now. There’s also Slay the Spire, a fantastic roguelike deckbuilder that recently earned a 9/10 from GameSpot, on sale for $12.49. You can check out more of the best games on sale above and see the entire Tiny Teams Festival on Steam–there are quite a few gems available to snag at great prices right now.
The much-anticipated, major wave of content for the Square Enix MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV has been fully detailed in the latest 5.3 patch notes update. FFXIV 5.3 caps off the epic storyline that came in the latest expansion, Shadowbringers, with what looks to be a wild, emotional conclusion; we talked about it a bit in our previous FFXIV 5.3 story, which you should check out. Here, we’ll go into more of the intricate, newly detailed tweaks like classes/jobs and questlines.
Astrologian is getting the most work of all the jobs, such as reducing the MP consumption of the actions Helios, Benefic II, Aspected Helios, Aspected Benefic, and Combust II. While Lightspeed’s effect of reducing MP cost has been removed, Draw and Sleeve Draw will have a new additional effect of restoring 8% of maximum MP. The action Sleeve Draw has also been reworked entirely, as well as other changes to the Horoscope and Natural Sect actions.
Marauders/Warriors also get some notable buffs, like increasing Storm’s Eye duration and giving Inner Release, Berserk, and Mythril Tempest the effect of extending the Storm’s Eye timer. Additional changes to cooldown timers and potency numbers for Gunbreaker, Pugilist/Monk, Summoner, Scholar, Machinist, and Bard are included.
Through additions in New Game+, you can replay job/class quests from the original nine classes as well as all the three parts to each crafter and gatherer job.
As for the revamping of A Realm Reborn, several quests have either been cut or truncated, as was previously known, but we have more detail on how that’ll work. If you’re in the middle of quest that’s being adjusted, you’ll have a notification asking you to abandon said quest and will be prompted to take on the next one or the adjusted version of the quest you’re on. The overall story is not affected by the cut content as it’s intended to eliminate repetitive non-critical objectives.
FFXIV’s photo mode is getting a major buff, too. With 5.3, you’ll have options for stickers, some of which are very cute. You can decorate your group poses and screenshots with stickers of minions, text bubbles, and other imagery. There will also be a lip movement option and some new filters in photo mode–a few new emotes are on the way as well.
Uwah! Stickers can certainly liven up all that /gposing in Limsa Lominsa.
And of course, FFXIV 5.3 is also a major content drop. The next phase in the Sorrow of Werlyt questline will be available which tells its own story of an important supporting character while providing some incredible boss fights. In 5.1, we were able to fight Ruby Weapon (and the Extreme version in 5.2) and it’s likely we’ll be fighting Sapphire Weapon in the 5.3 quests (and maybe with our own Gundam-style mech). The Nier Automata crossover raid is getting its second chapter with The Puppet’s Bunker and it looks to be key for the interconnecting of the FFXIV and Nier universes while also offering great 24-player boss fights.
The progression of the main story questline includes a new dungeon called The Heroes’ Gauntlet and looks to have major implications for how the narrative plays out. There will also be a new story-based Trial (multi-faceted boss fight), but the nature of it is being withheld for spoiler reasons, making things all the more exciting.
In 5.1, the Nier Automata raid series took us through The Copied Factory to fight many familiar enemies.
Along with the 5.3 update is a huge change to the FFXIV free trial. As we covered before, the free trial will included all of the base game, A Realm Reborn, and the entire first expansion pack, Heavensward, and all the post-release content just before the Stormblood expansion. The free trial can take you up to level 60 and all the accompanying content (with some minor restrictions) whereas it cut you off at level 35.
Plenty of more details on can be found on the official FFXIV patch 5.3 site. The update launches tomorrow, August 11 at 3 AM PT–FFXIV is also currently undergoing a 24-hour maintenance period for the patch. In the meantime, be sure to read my FFXIV 5.3 interview with director/producer Naoki Yoshida where we talk about beloved characters, the future of the game’s story, and in-game character ass.
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The Peacock streaming service has released the best look yet at its upcoming Saved by the Bell revival series, inviting viewers back to Bayside High. In the trailer, plenty of new characters are seen, along with some very familiar faces.
In the trailer alone, adult versions of Slater (Mario Lopez) and Jessie (Elizabeth Berkley) are introduced, reminiscing about their past at this high school they can’t seem to escape. Meanwhile, The Max’s magician/waiter Max (Ed Alonzo) is seen once again serving customers at the incredibly ’80s burger joint that somehow looks exactly the way it did when Saved by the Bell first premiered.
Among the new characters seen in the teaser are Mac Morris (Mitchell Hoog), the son of Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) and Kelly Kapowski (Tiffani Thiessen). Gosselaar will reprise his role on the show, and is convinced Thiessen will be doing the same. What’s more, the revival will reveal that Zack has gone on to become the governor of California.
Other new characters include Slater and Jessie’s son (Belmont Cameli) and the character Daisy (Haskiri Velazquez), who essentially serves as the new Zack Morris. Speaking during Peacock’s CTAM 2020 presentation, Velazquez confirmed that she had the power to take a “time out” and freeze time, much like Zack did in the original series.
This trailer also shows one major difference from the previous incarnations of Saved by the Bell. This revival is a single-camera comedy, filmed without a studio audience. The original, on the other hand, was filmed like a traditional multi-camera sitcom, complete with a laugh track.
The Saved by the Bell revival still does not have a premiere date. When it does, though, it will stream on the Peacock streaming service.
